The Waterless Sea (28 page)

Fenn walked beside Darrow, tense and alert. ‘Where are you taking us?'

‘Further in,' said Darrow.

But they did not get much further. They entered a vast, vaulted chamber with another huge staircase at one end, and an immense iron grille rattled down and clanged to the floor behind them, cutting off their escape. ‘Scatter!' shouted Fenn, but a swarm of black-clad figures came streaming from doorways and pouring down the staircase, until a wall of sorcerers circled them, ten deep, each with a glittering handful of sharp blades.

Without a sound, Oron dropped and squirmed through the grille; he was small enough to squeeze through. Then he was gone, vanished into the shadowy bowels of the Palace. Shada and Haid spun round to wriggle after him, but a swift note of chantment and a flash of steel pinned them both to the stone floor. With a cry, Calwyn sank down beside the children. They were not hurt, but the short, sharp, steel blades had plunged through their tunics, deep into the polished stone. Already Shada was yanking herself free, ripping her ragged clothes, but there was a harsh growl, and another strong blade flew through the air. Shada screamed as it knocked her to the ground and pinned her down by the hair.

Calwyn couldn' t see clearly what happened next, but she had an impression of rushing figures, whirling black robes, shrieks and growls of chantment, and the terrifying rush and lunge of spears and knives. Shada screamed again, tugging at her pinioned hair. Calwyn struggled to free her, to shield Halasaa, and to sing. ‘Mica!' she yelled. ‘A wind, a wind!' She sang up a wind, a strong indiscriminate blast that knocked all the wrestling figures off their feet, rebels and sorcerers alike. She heard Mica' s high clear voice join hers. At last the girls staggered to their feet, with their backs against a wall, and Calwyn saw the floor covered with breathless bodies, dozens of black-robed sorcerers writhing like upended cockroaches, and the rebels on their stomachs, flattened by the force of the wind.

‘Enough!' cried Darrow in a ringing voice. Calwyn and Mica exchanged a glance, and shifted the tone of their song to make the wind flow around him, so he could stand. He stood with his hands upraised, and swung around to show them all what he held in his hand.

It looked like a burning ember. It drew the faint light of the vast room toward it, and the gaze of every person there. The dull red glow throbbed slowly, radiating a dense and irresistible power. With a sickening thump of her heart, Calwyn recognised the ruby ring, Samis' s ring.

Only the murmur of the girls' song and the eerie whisper of their spellwind disturbed the cold silence of the huge room. The hairs on the back of Calwyn' s neck stood up.

Darrow cried, ‘I have returned to claim what is mine!'

His voice echoed around the polished walls.

From the far end of the chamber, at the foot of the staircase, one of the sorcerers called in a strangled voice, ‘What do you claim? Your punishment?'

‘You have no right, nor any power to punish me.'

‘You left us! You broke the covenant of the Black Palace.'

Darrow threw back his head. ‘I recognise no covenant. What worth has a covenant that is not entered freely?What worth has a covenant imposed on children, stolen from their homes? Every one of you was taken from your family, most of you even lost your names in this place, as I did, and yet you dare to take homes and names and families from other children in their turn! Your covenant is void, and I repudiate it!'

His words rang through the chamber, and died away into the hiss of the spellwind. Behind him,Vin cheered, and Shada and Haid whooped and clapped their hands. And high in a gallery above, where they had been watching everything, the chanter children who still lived in the Black Palace cheered and drummed their fists against the stone. Some of the younger sorcerers cheered too. Without turning around, Darrow held up a hand, and they all fell quiet.

A sorcerer shouted, ‘Where is your friend, Samis?'

The words hung in the quiet for the space of a breath.

‘Samis is dead,' said Darrow in a low voice. ‘And I have returned to claim what is mine by right of this ring, the Ring of Hathara, the ring that once was Lyonssar' s.'

At once the sorcerers erupted into agitated murmurs. Calwyn looked at Mica, and gestured with her hand. Mica nodded, and they altered their song to lighten the wind. They sent a soft breeze through the chamber, as a reminder of what they could do if they chose, but the sorcerers and the rebels found they could sit up without having the breath snatched from their lungs.

Darrow held up the ring. Then, for the first time, he pushed it onto his finger, and raised his clenched fist in the air. Calwyn' s breath caught in a disbelieving sob.

Darrow cried, ‘I claim dominion of this place and all who dwell herein! In the name of Lyonssar, and by the token of Lyonssar!'

His voice rang back from the vaulted roof. Three sorcerers, marked out from the rest by the black cowls they wore, climbed to their feet. The other sorcerers were watching to see what they would do. Calwyn' s heart beat hard. Slowly the three cowled heads bent low. Then, soft as the hiss of wavelets running up a beach, soft as sand settling after a windstorm, the sorcerers responded. ‘In the name of Lyonssar, you are Lord of the Black Palace and all who dwell herein.' And one by one, they staggered to their knees, and bowed their heads before Darrow.

For a moment he stood motionless, his fist raised high, blood-light glinting off the red stone. His back was to Calwyn. Then he turned to look at her and Mica, and said in his dry voice, ‘You may stop singing.'

The first order of the Lord of the Black Palace was to have Halasaa carried to a quiet room; the next, that food and drink be provided for the rebels and the crew of
Fledgewing
, and that they be given suitable accommodation.

‘And the children, my lord?' asked one of the stiff-backed sorcerers appointed to carry out the wishes of the wearer of the Ring of Lyonssar.

Darrow looked at him coolly. ‘Treat them as honoured guests.'

Calwyn said, ‘Oron must be hiding somewhere. He should be told that he won' t be harmed.'

‘See to it,' said Darrow, and the sorcerer bowed stiffly.

Fenn stood nearby, fingering the hilt of his knife, waiting to speak with Darrow. One side of his mouth curled in a half-smile. He knew, thought Calwyn with a stab of resentment. He knew what she had not known.

Cautiously Heben cleared his throat. ‘Er – Lord Darrow –' ‘Address him as
my lord
,' said the haughty sorcerer disdainfully. Calwyn almost laughed. Were they back in the Palace of Cobwebs, with its ridiculous layers of protocol and etiquette? Could it really be Darrow, her Darrow, at the centre of this bowing and scraping?

‘My lord,' repeated Heben obediently. ‘Shada' s brother, my brother-in-land, Gada –'

‘Of course.' Darrow turned to his minion. ‘Have the boy, Gada, brought to this man' s quarters.'

‘What about all the other children?' Calwyn burst out, unable to contain herself any longer. Darrow turned his cool, appraising look on her.

‘I will deal with the children in good time,' he said. ‘There is much to be done. Please, Calwyn, enjoy the hospitality of the Black Palace.'

It was an order, not an invitation. Her face burning hot, Calwyn opened her mouth, but Tonno laid a restraining hand on her sleeve.

‘Steady, lass,' he murmured. ‘He' s up to something. Give him some room to cast his line out.'

Stiffly, Calwyn inclined her head and allowed Tonno to lead her away. But as soon as they reached the sparsely furnished rooms that had been assigned to them, her feelings exploded.

‘Is
this
what he came here for?' she demanded. ‘I can' t believe it! No wonder he wouldn' t tell me what he was planning! Lord of the Black Palace! Does he think he' s Samis, come back to life?' She flung herself into a chair, but the next moment she sprang up again and began to pace furiously.

Mica helped herself to the platters of food that had been brought to them. ‘He' s had that ring all the time, you know,' she said. ‘That were Samis' s ring, weren' t it? Does that mean Samis were the Lord of the Black Palace, too? He never said nothin about that.'

‘Samis was set on becoming Emperor of all Tremaris,' said Calwyn. ‘Perhaps he didn' t think a petty lordship like this was worth mentioning!'

‘No petty lordship, I think,' said Heben slowly. ‘With no Emperor on the throne –'

‘Whoever rules the Palace, rules the Empire, yes, yes, like Fenn said. So Darrow is the Emperor of Merithuros, is he?' Calwyn let out the incredulous laugh that had lurked in her throat since Darrow first pulled the ring from his pocket.

‘Back in Spareth, didn' t Darrow say that Samis stole that ring?' growled Tonno from the corner.

Shada said, ‘The sorcerers told us about that ring, the ring that was lost, the Ring of Lyonssar. Without the ring, there was no Lord here, just the Council of Three. We all knew that.'

‘All that time!' cried Calwyn to Tonno. ‘All that time, ever since Spareth, he' s been thinking. Thinking about whether to come back here and become Lord of the Black Palace –' ‘And if he sets them children free, and stops the sorcerers stealing them, and puts chantment to good work, why not?' said Tonno unexpectedly.

‘Well –' Calwyn stopped. She couldn' t explain why she felt that Darrow had betrayed her. What if she' d gone back to Antaris, and been proclaimed High Priestess, as Marna had said would be her own destiny one day? Would she expect Darrow to feel as affronted and wounded as she did now? Abruptly she turned her back on the others and walked to the end of the room. If there had been a window, she would have stared out of it, but there was none.

It was because he had never told her about the significance of the ring. He hadn' t trusted her enough to tell her. Instead he' d brooded over it alone, in his whitewashed hut on the cliff, sailing around in his little boat. She was so angry and hurt that if Darrow had appeared before her at that moment, Lord of the Black Palace or not, she would have
kicked
him –

Just then the door did open, and she swung around, heart beating hard. But instead of Darrow, a young brown-skinned boy stood in the doorway, grinning shyly. Shada gave a choking cry, and flung herself around his neck, and Heben leapt across the room to embrace them both. Calwyn watched the tight, joyful knot of the three reunited. Then, with a lump in her throat, she turned away.

Between the sand-clock and the central staircase was a hollow, dusty space. Darrow had known it, as a boy, and had hidden a tiny carving of an albatross there. And Oron knew it, too. He had found the albatross, without knowing what it was.

He was creeping back from the kitchens to his hiding place, with a stolen round of soft
hegesu
cheese, when he was seized from behind. He saw a glimmer of pink silk, then a slender but strong hand clapped over his mouth.

‘Be quiet!' a voice hissed in his ear. ‘Or I' ll snap your neck like a pigeon!'

He believed her. He went limp in her grasp, and the woman twisted him around to stare into his face. ‘You' re one of those children who escaped, aren' t you? The chanter children, from the Palace of Cobwebs?'

Dumbly Oron nodded.

‘And here you are, running about loose. Why is that?' She narrowed her eyes. ‘These sorcerers brag of their mighty gifts, but they can' t manage to keep hold of one little boy. They don' t even put a guard on their front door! I could have brought a whole Army inside. I didn' t need to leave my servants waiting on the plain.'

Speechless, Oron stared at her, his mouth agape. The woman tightened her grip on his arm and began to fire questions at him. ‘Why are you hiding?Who are you hiding from?Who rules the sorcerers?Where is the girl who brought you here, Calwyn? Do the sorcerers know that the Army will arrive at any time?'

‘I – I don' t know!' Oron stammered.

The woman' s pale blue gaze bored into him. ‘You' re afraid, aren' t you? I know the smell of fear. This whole place reeks of it.' She gave his skinny arm a final wrench, and let it drop. ‘Well, little boy,' she said softly. ‘Fear no more. I will take care of you for the rest of your days, if you' ll be my eyes and ears. What do you say?'

Oron swallowed the acid that had come bubbling into his throat, and nodded his head again.

Calwyn sat beside Halasaa' s bed and watched the shallow rise and fall of his chest. Always lean, he was thinner than ever, his cheeks sunken, the flesh stretched like a drum-skin. Helplessly Calwyn raised his dry hand to her lips. She had tried again and again in the last few days to tune her sense of becoming to the flickering light within her friend, but the flame was even dimmer than before.
Halasaa!
she called silently.
Come back to us!

She sat there most of the night; she thought that perhaps it was dawn now. Shadows clotted in the corners of the black polished room, and the guttering lamps gave off a smell that made her head swim. Wearily, she sank her head onto her hand.

‘Is he any better?'

Darrow had let himself quietly into the room, but she didn' t raise her head. She said dully, ‘He' s dying. You know that, don' t you?'

There was a pause.

At last Darrow said, ‘I' ve not seen you since the day we came here.'

‘I thought the Lord of the Black Palace would send for those he wished to see.'

He let out a soft breath. ‘Calwyn, Calwyn. You must know you need no invitation from me.'

‘I don' t know anything about you any more.' She turned to stare at him. ‘Why didn' t you tell me about the Ring?'

‘I intended to tell you. I came back to Ravamey to tell you, but you were gone.'

She gestured impatiently. ‘You could have told me before that. You had the whole of winter to tell me!'

‘And you could have told me that you had learned some more powers of chantment! Healing, and mind-speech, and ironcraft. You told me nothing! Instead I had to find out from Tonno and Mica. I suppose you' ve been too busy sharing confidences with Heben to find time to mention it to me.'